Tom Crick (born January 1981) is a British interdisciplinary computer scientist. He is Chief Scientific Adviser at the

UK Government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It holds the responsibility for Culture of the United Kingdom, culture a ...

, and Professor of Digital Policy at

Swansea University Swansea University () is a public university, public research university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. It was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. In 1996, it chang ...

. Alongside his academic work, Crick has led major reforms to the science and technology curriculum in

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, with related contributions to digital/technology policy in the UK.

Early life and education

Crick was raised and educated in Wheatley, Oxfordshire. He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies in computer science at the

University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...

, having been sponsored through his undergraduate degree by

ARM In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between ...

. His doctoral research, funded by the

EPSRC The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a British Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical sciences, mainly to univers ...

, considered superoptimisation by developing practical strategies to generate provably optimal code using

answer set programming Answer set programming (ASP) is a form of declarative programming oriented towards difficult (primarily NP-hard) search problems. It is based on the stable model (answer set) semantics of logic programming. In ASP, search problems are reduced ...

Career

After a period as a postdoc on ''ALIVE'', a European Commission FP7-funded project at the University of Bath, Crick was appointed lecturer in computer science at

Cardiff Metropolitan University Cardiff Metropolitan University () is a public university located in Cardiff, Wales. Formerly known as the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC; , ) which was established in 1996. The university offers degree courses in a variety of d ...

in 2009, becoming a full professor in 2016. He was recognised as a UK National Teaching Fellow in 2014. He moved to a research chair at Swansea University in 2018, becoming Deputy Pro-vice-chancellor for Civic Mission in 2021. Crick joined the UK Government's

as Chief Scientific Adviser in 2023, and is the youngest government CSA to date. In 2017, Crick was elected Vice-President of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT for a three-year term. He has also served in a number of senior elected positions in the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...

, including Vice-Chair of ACM Europe Council and a Member-at-Large of ACM Council. Crick is editor-in-chief (2021–present) of ''

The Computer Journal ''The Computer Journal'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering computer science and information systems. Established in 1958, it is one of the oldest computer science research journals. It is published by Oxford University Press on behal ...

'', published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, and an editor (2020–present) of the ''Wales Journal of Education'', published by

University of Wales Press The University of Wales Press () was founded in 1922 as a central service of the University of Wales. The press publishes academic journals and around seventy books a year in the English and Welsh languages on six general subjects: history, poli ...

Computer science education and digital skills

Crick has been involved with the reform of the school-level science and technology curriculum in Wales since 2010. In 2013, he was appointed by the

Welsh Government The Welsh Government ( ) is the Executive (government), executive arm of the Welsh devolution, devolved government of Wales. The government consists of Cabinet secretary, cabinet secretaries and Minister of State, ministers. It is led by the F ...

to chair an independent review of the ICT curriculum in Wales. Crick argued that Welsh learners were not being given the necessary skills or agency to thrive in our digital world.* In 2015–2016, Crick chaired the development of the bilingual ''Digital Competence Framework'' in Wales, which elevated digital competence (the skills, knowledge and attitudes required to be confident in the use of technologies) to the same statutory position as literacy and numeracy in the new Curriculum for Wales. It outlined how schools could incorporate student-centred digital competency into their local curriculum. He then led the development of the ''Science & Technology'' strand of the new Curriculum for Wales in 2017. His efforts united the traditional sciences (physics, chemistry and biology) with

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

and design & technology. The new curriculum was published in January 2020 and started phasing in for all schools in Wales from September 2022 onwards. Crick was also appointed Chair of the ''National Network of Excellence in Science & Technology'', a £4m Welsh Government strategic investment which focused on supporting

STEM Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

teachers in partnership with higher education institutions. Crick also chaired Qualification Wales’ 2018 review of ICT sector qualifications, which reported that they were outdated and needed considerable reform, resulting in new GCSE and A-Level qualifications in Digital Technology from 2021 onwards.

Non-executive and board-level roles

Crick was a non-executive director of

Swansea Bay University Health Board Swansea Bay University Health Board (SBUHB) () is the local health board of NHS Wales for Swansea and Neath Port Talbot, in the south-west of Wales. Established as Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board (ABMUHB) in 2009, it was renamed ...

from 2017 to 2024,, an inaugural Commissioner of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales from 2018 to 2022., and a non-executive director of Industry Wales from 2021 to 2024. He has previously been a trustee of the

British Science Association The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chief ...

and the

Campaign for Science and Engineering The Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) is a non-profit organisation that is the UK's leading independent advocate for science and engineering. It focuses on arguing for more research funding, promoting a high-tech and knowledge-based e ...

(both 2011–2017). He was appointed a trustee of

Cumberland Lodge Cumberland Lodge is a 17th-century Grade II listed country house in Windsor Great Park 3.5 miles south of Windsor Castle. Since 1947 it has been occupied by the charitable foundation known as Cumberland Lodge, an educational charity and social ...

in 2024.

Awards and honours

* 2011:

Media Fellow with

BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, ...

* 2013: Worshipful

Livery company A livery company is a type of guild or professional association that originated in medieval times in London, England. Livery companies comprise London's ancient and modern trade associations and guilds, almost all of which are Style (form of a ...

of Wales Gold Award * 2014: HEA National Teaching Fellow * 2017:

Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) * 2020:

British Educational Research Association The British Educational Research Association (BERA) is a membership association and learned society committed to advancing research quality, building research capacity and fostering research engagement. BERA's aim is to inform the development of po ...

Public Engagement and Impact Award * 2020: Fellow of the

Learned Society of Wales The Learned Society of Wales () is a national academy, learned society and Charitable organization, charity that exists to "celebrate, recognise, preserve, protect and encourage excellence in all of the scholarly disciplines", and to serve the W ...

* 2022: IET Achievement Medal * 2022: Fellow of the

Academy of Social Sciences The Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS) is a representative body for social sciences in the United Kingdom. The academy promotes social science through its sponsorship of the Campaign for Social Science, its links with Government on a variety of m ...

* 2023: BCS Lovelace Medal * 2023:

Hugh Owen Medal * 2024:

Honorary Fellow

References

External links

*
Personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crick, Tom British computer scientists Welsh computer scientists Welsh scholars and academics Welsh engineers 21st-century Welsh engineers British scientists 21st-century British scientists Welsh scientists 21st-century Welsh scientists British social scientists 21st-century British social scientists Welsh educators 21st-century Welsh educators Computer science educators Science education in the United Kingdom British science communicators Fellows of the British Computer Society Fellows of the Institution of Engineering and Technology Fellows of the Learned Society of Wales Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences Academics of Swansea University Alumni of the University of Bath Civil servants in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport British civil servants 21st-century British civil servants Scientists from Oxford 1981 births Living people